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Dow Jones Sees Flat Advertising Revenue, Gains in Subscriptions

News Corp released its Q2 revenue report for 2019 this week, showing overall increased revenue of $2.63 billion, or a 21% increase compared to the year prior.

However, its News
and Information Services division, which includes Dow Jones, home to The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, saw more nuanced numbers across revenue streams.

According to the report, revenues in Q2 decreased by 3% or $41 million in the News and Information Services division, in part because of negative impact from foreign currency fluctuations.
Dow Jones, however, reported a 4% growth in revenue during Q2.

During the same quarter year prior, Dow Jones’ digital revenues accounted for 29%.

At Dow Jones,
digital revenue accounted for 55% of its circulation revenue, while digital revenues for the quarter across Dow Jones and newspaper mastheads amounted to 35% of their combined revenues.

Broken down, The Wall Street Journal ended the quarter with 1,709,000 digital subscribers, while News Corp Australia’s mastheads counted 460,000 digital subscribers, up from 389,600
during the same time year prior.

The UK’s The Times and Sunday Times counted 269,000 digital subscribers, up from 220,000 the year prior.

Across the News and Information Services division, advertising revenues declined by 5% compared to the year prior, driven in large part by the weak print advertising market and lower revenues
at its North America Marketing division.

The division saw an increase of 1% in circulation and subscription revenues, but that growth was due mainly to healthy contributions from Dow Jones. Dow Jones
recorded a 7% increase in circulation revenue following a 23% digital paid subscriber growth at The Wall Street Journal amounting to an increase of $1.7 million. Dow Jones also increased
cover and subscription prices, which contributed to improved revenue.

News Corp
Chief Executive Robert Thomson stated: “At News and Information Services, we saw a continuation of positive trends in paid digital subscriptions, including accelerating gains at
The Wall Street Journal, and stronger digital advertising revenues in both the U.S. and Australia.”